Delawareans love to talk about beach traffic almost as much as they hate to get stuck in it.

Like the fine sand at Dewey or the boardwalk at Rehoboth, the congested highways that lead to — and through — Delaware’s coastal towns have become beach lore.

I “went there two years ago. Never again. It took four hours in traffic, and I rode around two hours to not find a parking spot,” said Brenda Lee Carletti, a Dover native who now lives in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania.

The irritation with clogged highways through once-rural areas is part of growing pains Sussex County faces as it propels Delaware’s population upward – pains that have persisted even as the state has conducted dozens of road and transit projects during the past decade.

Citing Delaware's $3.1 billion tourism industry, transportation officials say another $837 million in road construction is coming to Sussex County during the next six years — projects that include numerous upgrades to Del. 1, the state’s primary north-south highway.

Numerous intersection reconstruction projects are planned in construction on Del. 1 leading to the Delaware beaches.(Photo: Delaware Department of Transportation)

Still, DelDOT spokesman C.R. Mcleod said there are no plans to add an additional lane along Del. 1, stating "roadway expansion would require such a significant and costly amount of land acquisition that a project of this scope would not be viable."

The often-congested highway in July carried more than 4.5 million vehicles through its tolls in Middletown and Dover.

“The traffic this year around the Fourth of July was the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Jo-Ann Bacher, a rental manager at Jack Lingo Realtor in Rehoboth Beach.

When The News Journal a week ago asked Delawareans on its Facebook page about beach traffic, the forum elicited more than 100 comments from people lamenting the sometimes-standstill weekend gridlock and lack of parking in the coastal communities.

It’s “Rt. 1 or Rt. 1, the choice is yours,” Art Sullivan of Newark said, referring to the lack of alternate routes from Del. 1.

Added Middletown’s Ronni Mercer, “I used to love going down to the beach. It’s not worth the aggravation anymore!”

New Castle’s M.K. Boyce offered a critique to those nostalgic for the time when Delaware’s beaches were less known across the East Coast.

“DE beaches are a steal,” Boyce said. “You want a continuous flow door-to-door … then buck up and pay for it!”

Stats show what people know

The number of people making their permanent home in once-rural Sussex County is surging, growing 12 percent between 2010 and 2016 to 220,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

County officials, pointing to building permit data, say the growth is concentrated near the beaches.

Adding to those residents each summer are thousands more who come for vacations lasting days or weeks.

One Saturday afternoon in July, longtime Lewes firefighter Robert Stephens ruminated on the traffic issue as he lounged in a chair at his station after returning from a medical call.

During weekend emergencies, he said, his teams have learned patience while negotiating clogged highways — particularly Del. 1 between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

“The main thing we try to do is just take our time,” he said. “We got a big firetruck, and even though it has blinky lights and sirens and everything else but the kitchen sink, unfortunately, some people still don’t see that.”

A growth of homes in the area has not been matched by a proportional increase in road capacity, he said, because there’s simply nowhere to put new roads.

“We have more cars coming on the roads that can barely handle the cars right now,” he said.

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Longtime Lewes firefighter Robert Stephens lounges in a chair at his station after returning from a medical call in July. During those emergencies, his teams have learned patience while negotiating a clogged Del. 1, between Lewes and Rehoboth, he said.
“The main thing we try to do is just take our time,” he said. “We got a big firetruck, and even though it has blinky lights and sirens and everything else but the kitchen sink, unfortunately , some people still don’t see that.”(Photo: Karl Baker/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

Despite all of the growth-caused traffic, state transportation officials and some residents stress there are ways to avoid gridlock — move around early in the morning or late at night.

Delaware Department of Transportation traffic manager Gene Donaldson each year warns drivers traveling south through the state on Del. 1 to avoid Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday during the late morning.

A crack-of-dawn strategy has worked for Mary Gerard, a Cleveland resident, who travels annually to Rehoboth Beach with her teenage daughters for a week's stay.

“OK, so here’s the deal, since my parents live in Maryland, we always stop there first and then we come, but we come early. … I get everybody up at 4:30 (a.m.), and we roll in before anybody else,” Gerard said last weekend, after she pulled a parking ticket off of her rented station wagon in downtown Rehoboth.

Asked about the present left on her windshield by beach authorities, she chuckled, and said, “You just have to be patient, pay it, and know you’re going to have one — or two.”

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Visitors took to walking on the boardwalk on Saturday, July 29, 2017.(Photo: CHUCK SNYDER/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS JOURNAL)

Hundreds of tourists filled the sidewalks on Rehoboth Avenue alongside Gerard that Saturday in July. One was Pittsburgh resident Jake Nelson. He hadn't been prepared for Delaware traffic.

As Nelson eyed a saltwater taffy shop, he explained how he, along with his girlfriend, had left their home in Pennsylvania during the middle of the day on a Friday.

He was bound for Delaware’s beaches, a place known to Nelson only through his passion for the Dogfish Head Brewery. But it was gridlock, not beer, that punctuated his initiation to the First State.

While Nelson coasted through central Pennsylvania with ease, his progress came to a near halt just after Wilmington, he said.

“The whole reason we left Pittsburgh, man, because it’s just the exact same thing," he said. "It’s always traffic.”

While stuck in the long line of cars with idling engines, Nelson checked the GPS on his phone with the hope it might direct him around the hourlong slowdown.

Too many head to the beach on Saturday

Despite warnings about traveling during peak hours, popular beach rentals often are what set unsuspecting travelers onto the highway during periods of gridlock.

Bacher, the Rehoboth real estate agent, said the overwhelming majority of weekly beach rentals in Delaware extend from Saturday to Saturday, bringing in hundreds of vehicles during the late morning and early afternoon every weekend.

While her company does rent 25 homes on a Sunday-to-Sunday schedule, consumer demand dictates hundreds of Saturday check-in times, she said.

“We would do more, but it just doesn’t seem to work out that way,” Bacher said.

The worst of the gridlock often builds at the 10-mile stretch of Del. 1, approaching Rehoboth Beach.

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Amy Savia, a Georgetown resident, said taking the bus, which uses a dedicated transit lane, allows her to pass by all of the stopped traffic on Del. 1.
Jason Minto/The News Journal/USA TODAY

DelDOT officials say the way to avoid delays is by parking at the Lewes Park and Ride, which opened in May.

Boarding one of nine bus routes that travel to Delaware’s beaches and Ocean City, Maryland, they say, vacationers can bypass traffic because of a dedicated transit lane on Del. 1.

Mcleod, DelDOT's spokesman, said DART has carried more than 140,000 riders already this summer on its resort routes, about 20,000 more than last year at the same time.

The Lewes Park and Ride is located on Del. 1 near its intersection with U.S. 9.

While waiting for a bus at the park and ride on a Saturday in July, Amy Savia, a Georgetown resident peered into the screen of her smartphone, which was plugged into a USB charging station at the bus stop.

Dressed in a long-sleeve shirt with a Grotto Pizza logo on the corner, Savia said beach-area buses allow her to get to work at the Rehoboth restaurant faster than if she were to drive. As she spoke on the blustery weekend morning, traffic congestion began to form on Del. 1, adjacent to the bus stop.

“It’s great because you get to ride down the bus lane and watch all the stopped traffic on Route 1,” she said.

Plus, Savia noted, if you have a bike, there is a repair stand adjacent to the bus stops with tools available for the public.

Despite the benefits, few people were using the Park and Ride that Saturday, evidenced by a mostly empty parking lot.

Newark resident Corinth Ford travels to the beaches every year to bike. But instead of using the Park and Ride, she departs on her two-wheeled excursions from one of the state parks in the area.

“I park there and head to Rehoboth or down to Bethany on my bike," she said. "No worries about parking — or parking tickets."

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Many parking spots are available at the Lewes Park and Ride on Del.1 on a Saturday morning in July.(Photo: Karl Baker/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

For vacationers who want to forgo a vehicle entirely, DART operates an express bus service to the beach with stops at the Wilmington train station, Christiana Mall, Odessa Park and Ride and the Scarborough Road Park & Ride in Dover.

And the growing number of people coming from New York City and Washington have another option — a separate bus company, called Best Bus.

Lisa Goldberg stepped off the Best Bus last Saturday with her two kids onto the sidewalk next to the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand. She opted for transit to avoid driving through both Delaware and Big Apple traffic, she said.

Asked if Delaware's beaches are widely known to New Yorkers, Goldberg replied: "My friends usually go to Long Island or the Jersey Shore.”

She was in Delaware to visit family, she said.

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A bus operated by BestBus unloads visitors to Rehoboth Beach at the charter bus stop along Rehoboth Avenue.(Photo: Jason Minto, The News Journal)

"We’re some of few who come out here,” Goldberg said.

Yet, Beach Bus general manager Avi Cohen said Delaware’s popularity is growing among the consciousness of New Yorkers. Demand has grown every year since he began the service in 2014.

His buses transport 70 to 100 people from Manhattan to Rehoboth each weekend, he said.

“The New York run is doing much better than the D.C. one,” he said.

In fact, Cohen said, Best Bus may expand to offer daily service from New York to Rehoboth Beach, Cohen said, with stops in Wilmington and Smyrna.

It wasn't market research that brought Best Bus to Delaware, Cohen said, but personal motivation. One of the company owners has a summer home in Rehoboth, and it was his experience that convinced others in the company to bet on the First State.

Traffic, while an issue, Cohen said, simply is calculated as cost in the business plan. But, as soon as his buses on Del. 1 reach the U.S. 9 turnoff, they pull into the dedicated transit lane.

“We use the express lane. … It’s much easier than being a regular car on the road,” Cohen said.

How about the ferry?

George Szary of Albany, New York watched an approaching ferry at the Lewes dock during the blustery Saturday in July.

While the Cape May, Lewes Ferry is a useful alternative to traveling Del. 1 between Delaware and New York, Szary said, getting to the ferry dock can be a challenge.

During his trip home from Ocean City, Maryland, he traveled north on Del. 1, passing through Fenwick Island and Bethany Beach with ease. But as he approached Dewey Beach, a serious crash involving a moped and a car halted his progression.

“It took us like an hour-and-a-half to go seven miles,” he said. "It bottled-necked for a while.”

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Vehicles driving off the Cape May-Lewes Ferry at the terminal in Lewes.(Photo: Jason Minto, The News Journal)

Szary remained upbeat despite the mishap. Anywhere beach destination, from Cape Cod to Maine to Delaware, there are 2-lane highways that can become "bumper-to-bumper during the summer months,” he said.

Also, on that Saturday morning, Steve Chamas motored northward through Delaware after a vacation in Virginia Beach, ultimately arriving at the ferry. Despite traveling at the same time, on the same Saturday morning as Szary, Chamas experienced no traffic, he said.

It was because of a convenient alternate route, he said.

Instead of using Del. 1, Chamas with his wife and daughter veered west to U.S. 113 then to Del. 24, before arriving in Lewes.

“Traffic was pretty good, actually,” Chamas said.

The route is one that many locals point to when travel reports on GPS applications indicate slowdowns on Del. 1. It cuts through farms lined with wooden fences and streets dotted with signs warning drivers of horses on the roadway.

While they differed on routes to the dock, both Chamas and Szary noted that traffic congestion is a primary reason to board the ferry.

“At least sitting on the ferry for two hours, I’m not sitting in traffic,” Szary said.